מנופים – رافعات – Cranes
‘The Impossible Theatre Festival’
A collaboration with Imagined Theatres
Is an attempt to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic and the cultural shut-down, April 2020
In the Festival, The Haifa.it artists shared an imagined stage proposal. A proposal which emerges from the "impossible" towards a "theatre of the imagination”, in an attempt to create a digital “gathering” - a Festival of the Impossible.
Instead of repressing and filling the artistic void by uploading archived performances (pre-coronavirus), we wish to stand courageously before it, stare at it and fantasize upon it with patience and curiosity.
Let's take a moment to free ourselves from the limitations of the "possible" in all of its manifestations: economical, political and even physical.
A short video work
Imagined by - Itai Doron
Voice - Maya Omaia Keesh
Design - Amir Gurfinkel
Sound -Tomer Rabinowitz
Full GLOSS on Cranes;
Drawn by Amir Gurfinkel
Foot Note ✍🏾 Some thoughts on Cranes -
*The starting point feels very possible – you could easily imagine a site-specific piece that starts at Haifa Port, maybe even on a boat. What happens next seems to be a bit trickier. Due to the fact that this Imagined Theatre is the first in our small Festival, I wanted to slide in, through the familiar and the sensual, towards the impossible.
* Haifa’s Topography – The first season of the Haifa.it group is titled “between mountain and sea” (in Hebrew and Arabic it sounds better) - A lot of things are hidden in this tension between the depth of the sea and the top of the mountain. The first cranes to light up – expose the historic Haifa. The flat Haifa. Downtown, Wadi Salib, Bat-Galim and the Port. In the second part of the event, other cranes from different parts of the city join, lighting up the mountain itself. Revieling the topography of modern Haifa that sits on the Carmel Mountain; a holy mountain for so many (from the Egyptians to Elijah the prophet and of course The Baháʼí Faith). From the sea Haifa looks different, and the lighting of the cranes reviels it, layer by layer.
*Choreography – Different objects moving in space. Different shapes formulated by the human body. Geometry in constant movement. Never complete. Just a hint. The viewer completes the movement. The imagination of the viewer. Those shapes are always moving and sometimes it’s very hard to grasp them, maybe even impossible to grasp. When the cranes arms move together in unison – it seems very impressive; like a big machine wrapping the city of Haifa. But once they start moving in different directions, skyscraper scale shapes start being created. Cranes – the manufacturers(builders?) of the permanent – are now erasing it for the geometry of the possible(impossible?) – which is constantly moving, which takes place mainly in the imagination of the viewer. One can now see the permanent city of Haifa collapse into the infinite possible combinations of a very temporary Haifa. Or in the definition of Hakim Bey - T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone.